Sorry to bump an old topic, just wanted to share my experience with flashing the Viper.
After soldering again and again, wondering why the viper flasher froze on writing.
I successfully flashed the viper, and it boots wonderfully.
Using the "ViperUSBWin7Driver.zip" resulted in freezing the viper flashing program while writing.
Then I tried another Netbook with the driver and flasher from "ViperFlasherUSB10.zip" with Cobra 1.5,
and it flashed perfectly.
Have yet to try backups, but I'm happy it finally works, and after all the soldering, I haven't ruined my gamecube.

Word to the wise, if you can obtain a nice soldering station ( Like I did after pulling my hair out with the radio crap iron.

) Your hair will thank you. 10 second heat up versus 4 minutes, you do the math, Soldering Station + You = Zero Bald Spots. Cheapo Soldering Iron + You = Gamecube thrown out the window.
Just my opinion!
Also, Thanks for all the files!

P.S.: Those thin fragile ribbon cables are a pain in the groin.